For the past month, I have been on a Matthew Gray Gubler marathon. After binging all 15 seasons of “Criminal Minds”, who wouldn’t want to see more of Dr. Spencer Reid? I was scrolling through his Twitter when I saw he posted a tweet a few months ago promoting this new show on Hulu called “Dollface” and included some photos of him eating pizza. Fortunately for me in this time of social distancing, Netflix and Hulu are my two best friends right now, so I wanted to see what this show was about. “Dollface” is a 10 episode comedy about a woman who, after breaking up with her boyfriend of 5 years, gets back in touch with the meaning and importance of female friendship. From the mini segments to comedically complex characters, “Dollface” is satirically witty in its delivery of the “strong, independent woman” archetype. The show stars Kat Dennings, Shay Mitchell, Brenda Song, and many other guest stars.

The beginning was the ultimate definition of “well, that escalated quickly”. After the protagonist Jules asks about the pancakes at breakfast, boyfriend Jeremy pops the statement: “I don’t love you anymore”. Right after Jeremy ditches Jules on top of some hill in LA, a bus pulls up and the driver is a woman with a cat head who takes Jules and many other crying women on this trail of “life after being dumped”. This is one of many extreme twists that I admired about this show. From sudden cuts to a mock game-show or multi-camera sitcom filmmaking consistently featuring the catwoman, the way writer and creator Jordan Weiss is able to brightly portray what goes on in a woman’s head when she sees her ex at a party makes breaking up with someone a lot funnier than what it actually is. These mini segments throw a fun curveball at the audience because they make fun of any sticky situation the protagonist is in. And of course, there’s always that Midsommar-esque, cult like part of absurd entertainment, as seen in You on Netflix and While We’re Young (a film by Noah Baumbach), but it was a good surprise when this trope was used in a comedy as a significant event in the overall plot of the series. That part in the series was one of my favorite moments because of how wacky it was and it made me realize that there are actually people in real life that behave that way.

After this seemingly psychedelic trip down Epilogue Lane, Jules packs everything up and moves out of Jeremy’s house and into her own “antique” home with quite the open floor plan. She reconnects with her college friends Madison (played by Brenda Song) and Stella (played by Shay Mitchell) who, through a few small conflicts between them usually revolving around men, revives the friendship they had when they were younger. While some TV characters have aspects of relatability that connect to individual viewers, I was able to see aspects of not just myself but of my own squad in the four main characters, which strengthened the idea of unity within friendships. From Stella’s “brains and beauty” mantra to Madison’s not-so-perfect romantic life, I was able to root for everyone the same way I root for my own friends in real life. This show is comedically exaggerated in many ways but I really appreciated how each character was not completely checking all the boxes in one stereotype. Even though almost every side character’s personality and dialogue were somewhat exaggerated for comedic effect, it made the more intimate, real talk moments more significant and impactful. The insane specificity of some of the jokes made the comedic tone very niche and feminine, masterfully appealing to its probable audience of young female viewers. 

Later on, while walking her pet cat (yes, her cat) at a pet park, she bumps into and meets the very cute veterinarian Wes, played by the one and only Matthew Gray Gubler. Wes ends up spending the night at Jules’s place after a cat-eating-penis-shaped-marshallow incident and then encountering Jules at another party the next day where they almost kiss. Wes represents one side of this amorphous spectrum of types of men in the dating pool- the chill, sweet one. He proves to be a very challenging obstacle in Jules’s journey to valuing her female friends over new male ones. Understandably, we all want Wes or a man like Wes in our lives- sweet, charming, very attractive. But Jules getting over him and not giving into his tall and skinny curly brown hair ways was such a power move that is inspiring to all women alike. 

While I was rooting for Jules and Wes to get together, there could not have been a more iconic and better way of ending the season and enforcing the girl power theme by driving off with your best friend squad in your ex’s sister’s “Just Married” car. This is definitely a show to watch with your gal pals or even if you need a picker upper for your own sake.